Port of Entry

PHOENIX – Arizona Department of Transportation officers seized $29,000 hidden in a small cooler when a truck driver and passenger arrived at an Interstate 40 port of entry near New Mexico with no registration, no trailer and a suspicious story.

The officers, whose primary duty is making sure commercial vehicles operate safely and legally in Arizona, found the money Tuesday, Aug. 1, after the truck driver and his passenger gave permission to search the cab for paperwork that would help identify the truck.

PHOENIX – Just a year after beginning a study to determine how to improve efficiency and consistency at Arizona’s three primary international ports of entry, Arizona Department of Transportation officials already are seeing improvements that make the state a more attractive route for commercial carriers.

ADOT is working to eliminate border delays, ensuring fresh produce is transported safely and efficiently across Arizona.

A popular app is helping truckers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border as well as ADOT inspectors.

ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division help trucking companies understand the inspection process, improving port of entry efficiency.

PHOENIX – Pilot projects using technology to make highway work zones safer and commercial vehicle inspections at the border more efficient will begin in early 2017 thanks to federal grants recently awarded to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

The Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks grants, totaling $581,000, are from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

ADOT commercial vehicle inspectors use a different approach when conducting inspections.

DOUGLAS – Before trucks hauling Mexican products into the United States can leave the port of entry at the border, officers from the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Enforcement and Compliance Division make sure those commercial vehicles are safe to travel on Arizona roads.

Inspectors check drivers’ credentials and look for obvious safety issues. Some of the trucks are weighed and undergo 37-point safety inspections.

Before that, agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration conduct their own inspections.

Newly approved funding will move up improvements to SR 189 by two years.

PHOENIX – Nearly 8,000 more trucks, 400,000 more passenger vehicles and 900,000 more people entering the U.S. in 2015 through Arizona’s international ports of entry speak to numbers critical to this state’s economy: 

In an effort to enhance safety at one of the busiest ports of entry in the nation, ADOT is building a new pedestrian underpass on SR 189 (Mariposa Road).

PHOENIX – In 2011, the Arizona Department of Transportation created a special overweight commercial truck permit pilot program to efficiently move time-sensitive produce shipments from Mexico across the border into Arizona through the Mariposa Commercial Port of Entry in Nogales. Success with the program in Nogales has now prompted ADOT to expand the program to include the 25-mile commercial zone at the San Luis Port of Entry.